I have used 2 mobile hot water systems in my vans before settling to a permanent gas-free solution.

The nice thing about these gas systems is that you can have endless hot showers on demand, as long as you have the water supply. So basically you feed cold water with a small pump and a gas burner will heat-exchange it instantly to hot water. If your source water is too cold you can always recycle the water for a moment.

In the past I took showers in a tent hanging off my tailgate door which was great in good weather because of the huge space but windsurfing in the winter with growling gusts hitting the tent made me invent a shower inside the van. We have been taking showers inside ever since. Showering in the middle of a city or right before a fancy hotel, it makes you laugh.
Showering inside a small van with about 1.60m "standing" height was a bit awkward, I made a frame from PVC pipes that hold a tent within a 80x60x22 plastic tray box underneath and a very small foldable chair inside so you could take a sitting shower. It worked but still, very tight spaces with all the boards and sails and bikes and a dog!
In theory these gas water heaters should not be used indoors or in small spaces because of the carbon monoxide but we have never found this to be a problem. We are talking about 3-4 minute showers here so there is a bit of a smell but nothing that hurts you, just crack open a window afterwards and your fine.

Same principle than the cube versions. I changed to this heater for a while because I wanted something a bit more powerful, reliable, higher quality, with spare parts etc. The vertical hanging form factor suited me better so I could control the unit standing showering in my high roof van.
You can also connect a pressurized water hose so you can do without a pump but I never used this feature. A pump is not included btw. I got a Shurflo TrailKing 7LPM it works great although pretty noisy.

3. So right now I have a permanent hot water system in my van which is fantastic. We can take 4-6 showers before having to fill up again.
The system consists of:
- water pump, valves, accumulator and expansion tanks
- 42L water tank over the wheel arch
- 20L hot water heater with 2 options to heat water:
1) a heat exchanger using the hot engine coolant
2) an 800W electric element to heat water on campsites (I am planning solar power with a 1000W 12-220V converter)
Here a link to the product, equivalents can be found in the nautical sector.
http://nautica.atimariani.it/eng/products/stainless-steel/stainless-steel/bb020x.html
The temperature of the 20L hot water storage (90°C) drops so slowly* that if I drive half an hour I have enough hot water for 3 days. Basically I fill up and drive to a spot with my gf, we can shower off sand, salt and dirt and stay fresh & clean for a long weekend.
* In theory 1°C every hour but even less because I recycle some heat from my air heater ducting at night.

We always laugh when we see those €60K VW T5/T6 California's used by surf dudes. They have this mini kitchen on board with running water to clean a tomato, than they can sit around a table and have a romantic tête-à-tête... who care's if you stink and crawl into bed all salty? Now imagine getting up.
Apart from hygiene, a hot shower can save your life after a freezing session too, or at least save you from a bad cold!!

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forumYou can attach files in this forumYou can download files in this forum